Everyone gets lonely sometimes
by DefinitelySherlocked
Summary: Katniss is lonely, and Peeta has the perfect gift to keep her happy, but what will it be? Read to find out.


**Note: I am grateful for the reviews on my last story. I apologize for now continuing that sooner, but not to worry, I shall get to continuing that soon, but it takes both me and my friend to be in the mood for writing, and truthfully, we've had writer's block recently.**

**Any and all mistakes are mine in this story, it has only been read a few times and we can't see any mistakes yet, but if you see some, please tell me so I can correct myself in the future. I do try my best.**

**You may believe that the characters are slightly out of character, but I did try my best, but I obviously had to adjust them to fit into this fic.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games. I'm just borrowing the characters.**

Katniss was sat on the ground in the corner of her small living room area when she heard the door slam at the front of the house, though she barely paid attention to it. Peeta walked in a few seconds later, talking about his day or something along those lines. When he realized she wasn't paying any attention to him, he paused mid-sentence and wandered closer to her, kneeling down to her level.

"Katniss, are you okay?"

The sudden sound of Peeta's voice so close to her made her jump, as if just bringing her out of a trance.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine, Peeta. I'm fine." She reassured him, after getting quite an intimidating glance from him.

"Katniss, I can tell when there's something wrong with you. Now come on," he fell down purposely to sit next to her and turned his head in her direction, "Tell me what the matter is."

"It's nothing."

"Katniss."

"I'm lonely."

"I'm sorry, you're what?"

"I'm lonely. Who have I got to talk to?"

"Me, Haymitch, your mother, and there's Effie too if you're really that lonely. I'm sure she'll be up for a phone call, jut make sure it fits into her schedule." He gave a small chuckle at his own joke.

"Peeta, you don't get it. You're at the bakery all day, Haymitch is almost always drunk and passed out or has a hangover, and believe me, I'm never really in the mood to talk to Effie. I hunt, but after the hunger games I can't stop these mad hallucinations." She didn't show quite as much enthusiasm as Peeta did.

Peeta thought over this for a minute before speaking up again, "Alright, you leave this to me." He tapped Katniss on the hand before getting off the ground and pulling on his jacket he had thrown on the couch upon arriving. As he headed towards the door, Katniss rose to her feet and began to follow him.

"Peeta, where are you going?"

"Out. You stay here, I'll have a surprise for you when I get back, so you just sit in here and read until I get back. Or I'll send Haymitch over to talk to you."

Before Katniss could protest, Peeta was out of the door, so she went to sit down on the couch as he had suggested. And, to her surprise, a short while later, a fairly sober Haymitch wandered in without knocking. Although he was carrying a bottle full of some sort, he was less drunk than Katniss had expected. Truthfully, she hadn't expected him to turn up at all.

As she was pulled out of her train of thought, Haymitch sat himself next to her and pulled the bottle up to his lips and swallowed a mouthful.

"Hello, sweetheart." The stench of alcohol was strong as he breathed near her.

"Hey, Haymitch." Katniss gave a small smile at his words but continued facing forwards.

"I hear you're lonely."

Those words made her sigh. Why must Peeta tell people about their secret conversations? "Yeah. I might be. What does it mean to you?" She asked, already seeming irritated by this short conversation.

"Look," he placed a hand on hers, but she flinches away at the touch, "Sweetheart, I may be a drunk, old man, but I do still like to know what's going on." He takes another swig of his unknown drink and looks forward.

After about another hour of periods of silence and the odd conversations, finally the door opened, and in came Peeta, holding what appeared to be a blanket of some sort.

"Hey, I'm back" he greeted as he shut the door behind him.

Haymitch was the first to speak up, "What've you got there?"

"We'll, I figured since Katniss was lonely, and she doesn't exactly enjoy socialising, I'd get her a little present."

Katniss looked between a mixture of confused and worried, "Peeta, what did you fetch me?"

Peeta smiled mischievously before placing the object in the blanket on the ground, and watching as it walked out.

"Oh Peeta, he's the cutest thing I've ever seen!" The small puppy trotted over to Katniss as she kneeled down, and rolled over as he chewed at her finger. She quite happily stroked his stomach for him. She'd always had a soft spot for puppies and dogs. She was mor eof a dog person than a cat person. She knew Peeta was the other way around, so it made we appreciate the gift even more.

"So I take it you like him?"

"I love him Peeta, where did you get him?" She looked up as the puppy wandered off to explore his new surroundings.

"The dog down the road had puppies, and there was only him and a few others left, it took me a while to choose but I figured that he had the most personality and isn't quite as loud as the others."

He smiled as he watched the puppy harassing the feet of Haymitch.

"Oi, you little beast, get off my shoe." But to Haymitch's displeasure, the puppy insisted on tugging on the leather of the old boot. Once he was done chewing, the young dog clambered onto the sofa and climbed up to Haymitch's face and began his attempts to lick and chew at the man's ears and nose, all the while, Haymitch was left just protesting but never really getting anywhere through his commands.

Katniss let out a laugh at this, "I think he likes you. Hey, Peeta, does he have a name?" She looked up at him, a face of confusion spread across her features.

He shrugged in reply, "Not that I know of. I guess we'll leave it up to you to decide that." He smiled.

"How about Devil Mutt, or Demon." Haymitch suggested, trying to keep the puppy sitting in his lap and not jumping at his face.

Katniss rolled her eyes at his ideas but had actually come up with one of her own, "What about Jay? Short for Mockingjay."

"I think it suits him. Haymitch?"

"I don't care what you call him as long as he doesn't do this all the time." He gestured towards the now sleeping puppy stretched out across his lap, snoring quietly, oblivious to the world around him.


End file.
